We have before us the final words of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Churches just before His Parousia.The words extend to the farthest reaches of the prophetic Word regarding our Lord and Savior, and referring the Churches, again and again, back to the original seven messages of chapters two and three.

These are words that cause us to extend ourselves to our own limits and to depend on Holy Spirit to teach us; for we are the “children” of the firstfruits of the resurrection… ones written in the Lambs book of life from the beginning!So, it’s incumbent on us to know as much as we’re given to understand, no matter how difficult it may seem.

Here a little; there a little.And the jots and tittles will grow into great pearls!And the praise for our Redeemer will bring Him glory.

Before we come to verse sixteen though (which will drive us back to verse fifteen anyway), as you will remember, the explicatory and illustrative number by which God refers to man in the prophetic Word is “six”.Fallen mankind, in his desire to be “as God” in his own right, continues to be that way “ad infinitum”.Thus, the perfect “three” sixes – six, six, six.

Cursed and depraved man can never achieve the qualitative perfection (indicated by the number “seven”), nor can he be “as God” in perfect “threeness”!

The “threeness” permeates the Revelation of Jesus Christ; and we hear it once again in verse thirteen, at which point our Lord refers to Himself three times: He said: “I AMthe Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End”.

Yet, when He refers to fallen mankind (those who have no entrance into the tabernacle of God and the Lamb), there are six categories (verse fifteen): the dogs and the sorcerers and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters and all who love and practice falsehood!It is the gross darkness of mankind left in his sin and under the curse of God.

All who are written in the Lamb’s book of life and are made alive in Christ and have washed their garments may enter through the gates of the twelve tribes of Jacob into the New, and holy, Jerusalem to worship and serve God and the Lamb.

However, all of the “sixes” are without!And none of them are privileged to the fruit of the tree of life and entrance into the tabernacle of God with us!

Now.In verse sixteen, Jesus verifies once again that it is He Who has sent His messenger to testify all of these things; and the message is for “all of you in the Churches”.The messenger is sent directly from Jesus and speaks His very words.And the words are to “all of you holy ones”.

The “seven” Churches to which were sent the messages in chapters two and three indicate the totality of the Churches and all of the holy ones who have been sent out into the nations.The Revelation of Jesus Christ was to all of the Churches… all of the holy ones.

When you’re reading through your Bibles, you may come across the word “saints” with reference to those of the tribes of Jacob who God had kept for Himself.I really don’t like the use of that word, because it indicates that there may have been something inherently “holy” about them… and therefore God had kept them.

Such is not the case.They were “holy ones” because God had kept them from the beginning – not because they somehow had chosen to know Him and be obedient to Him.

The holy ones to whom this letter was sent were the ones who were present at Pentecost and sent back into the nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and they were the ones in Israel who Jesus had come to seek and to save.As He had called them in the older Scripture, so He called them here!He had known them from the beginning, and He called them “holy ones”.

All together they were the remnant of Israel, the Daughter of Zion, the elect of God from the tribes of Jacob, the firstfruit of the resurrection.This was the Church of Jesus Christ, established in every nation on earth (all seventy of them).They are the holy ones.And the words of the prophecy of this scroll were sent to them in the last days when our Lord’s Parousia was near at hand!

As Jesus said, here in verse sixteen, this message was sent by Him to “you (plural) in the Churches.All of them.All of the holy ones were to hear it and be strengthened in advance of the mighty things that were to come to pass “quickly”.

And the words to them are also to be understood by us, as well.

And then Jesus says to them (second part of verse sixteen): “I AM David’s root and offspring….”

The strengthening and confidence and assurance of all of His holy ones in all of the Churches in the nations would have been greatly enhanced by this statement from Jesus; for it drives down to the very core of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Savior of the world.

So it’s appropriate that we take time here at the end of the Revelation to understand it as best we can; for it will provide us the same confidence and assurance that it gave the original Churches of the firstfruit.

The first thing to note is the present tense “I AM”.And it’s the same as at verse thirteen where Jesus said “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.Here He says: “I AM David’s root and offspring”.

The first to hear the great “I AM” was Moses.He asked “who should I tell them sent me?And God said: “tell them I AM sent you”.That name, with the Hebrew markings included, is the name YAHVEH.

By the threefold I AM in verse thirteen, and the I AM here in verse sixteen, Jesus tells the Churches that He IS the I AM Who was the only one able to open the seven seals of the scroll (chapter five).He IS the root and offspring of David.And He IS the One Who spoke to Moses.

And He is the One to Whom Moses spoke later on regarding the people who had been freed from bondage in Egypt.

Recorded in Exodus 15, this is what Moses said of Him:

“You (YAHVEH) shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance.”

The twelve tribes of Jacob, freed from bondage, would be planted in the promised land.And they were to take root there and bring forth fruit unto YAHVEH among the nations of the earth.And it’s obvious throughout the text of Scripture (and here in the Revelation) that He is that “root”.I AM is the beginning and the end!He IS the root of the planting!

But, Moses told them, should they not obey, curses would be brought against the nation; and it would be uprooted and burned.

Now, five hundred years later, King David wrote this in Psalm 110:

“The Lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit at my right until I make your enemies your footstool”.

The Psalm is obviously about the coming Anointed One – the King of Kings and Savior of the world.King David, by the Spirit, spoke of Him.

Jesus, in a confrontation with pharisees, quotes King David, as recorded in Matthew chapter twenty-two. Here it is:

41)While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

42)saying, “What think ye of Christ (the Anointed One)? whose son is he?” They say unto him, ‘The son of David’.

43)He said unto them, “how then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying,

The pharisees couldn’t answer Him of course.But we can!It’s right here in the text of the Revelation.He is David’s “root” and David’s “offspring” (verse sixteen)!David’s “Lord” is the very One – I AM – from Whom David “sprang up”.And, He is the One born in the line of David – David’s Son.

Not only was YAHVEH God the very source – the root – of David’s existence and David’s Kingship of Israel; but David’s son (to be born at the end of the age) would also be David’s Lord and Master!

The pharisees had no answer to Jesus’ question.He was the “root” and “offspring” of David.There had been another “planting”, you see.The pharisees were not of this root and this offspring; so their eyes were blind and their ears deaf!

Moses had said that they would be “planted” in the promised land.But if they did not obey the One Who planted them, then all the curses would come upon them; and there would be another “planting”.

Some three hundred years after David, God spoke these things to Israel through the prophet Isaiah.Listen at chapter eleven:

1)And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch of his roots shall bear fruit.

2)And the Spirit of YAHVEH shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YAHVEH.

3)And his delight shall be in the fear of YAHVEH; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears;

4)but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the land with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

5)And righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

6)And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

7)And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8)And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

9)They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of YAHVEH, as the waters cover the sea.

10)And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse (David’s father), that stands as a sign to the peoples, unto him shall the nations seek; and His rest shall be glorious.

He is the “root” of all His holy ones.And the nations (the Gentiles) will seek Him; and He will give them “rest”.

Listen to the prophet Malachi at chapter four:

1)For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that coms shall burn them up, says YAHVEH of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

2)But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

3)And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says YAHVEH of hosts.

He shall leave them with neither root nor branch.

This people who God “planted” in the promised land will be left with neither root nor branch in the Day of the Lord.

Once again from Isaiah, this from chapter thirty-seven:

31)And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall take root downward, and bear fruit upward;

32)For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant… they that escape from mount Zion: the zeal of YAHVEH of hosts shall do this.

Jesus Christ the King of Kings was the very “root” of the Kingly line, traceable through King David and his father Jesse, back to Adam through his third son Seth.These are ones who God kept for Himself – “rooted” in, and kept by, David’s Master; for from them would be born the Anointed One – The Christ.And He would seek out and save the remnant that belonged to God and “plant” them in the nations.

Planted and rooted in the promised land was a nation – among which would come forth the root and offspring of David.And when He came (in the last days), the “planting” in the promised land was uprooted and burned.

As our Lord sends this message to the Churches, it was, indeed, the last days; and the city of Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, the house of God on the dome of the rock, and the land of Israel… would disappear in the fiery wrath of God.And would come the new, and holy, Jerusalem in which God would abide with man.And the Kingdom of the King of Kings – the root and offspring of King David – would be over all the nations.And they would come and bring their glory into the new tabernacle of God and the Lamb.

His reference here to “David’s root and offspring” would have brought to the minds of all of His holy ones in the Churches the whole-Bible fullness and continuity of the prophetic Word as it reveals the will and intent of God from the beginning; for the nation of Israel was planted and rooted in the land.

But the “remnant” was rooted in the Christ – the King of Kings – from the beginning!They were His “holy ones” who were gifted with the righteousness of the One from Whom they “sprang up”.And they would be kings and rulers IN HIM.And they would feed on the fruit of the tree of life (which was their privilege).And they would never be uprooted and burned.

Just as the minds and hearts of those in the original Churches would have been filled with wonder at the words of Jesus in this scroll, so ours should be as well.And I couldn’t help thinking about Jesus’ seven kingdom parables.

The Root and Offspring of David, He Who came to find His sheep who were lost among the wolves and jackals, kept on uttering the warning: “the kingdom has come upon you”, “the kingdom is at hand”.

And He spoke kingdom parables… all of them with content spoken previously in the prophets.

He was the Offspring of David Who would sit on David’s throne.It was at hand!And He spoke in parables!

When His disciples asked why, He quoted Isaiah:“So they won’t hear.”

The parable of the zizanium in the field (which had to be explained in detail to His disciples, and they still didn’t understand it), was a parable about the Root and Offspring of David!

In the “planting” of the tribes of Jacob in the promised land, two different crops had been planted together; and they took root and grew.One bore a foul-tasting evil fruit, and the other was the good one.

The Owner of the land determined that the two crops should grow together until the time when the good one could be identified and harvested, lest any of it be left behind with the evil crop.

When the time came, the good crop was harvested – in full.And the evil crop (the zizanium) was burned!

The disciples of Jesus wouldn’t have understood this until Pentecost!But, as Moses prophesied, the tribes of Jacob that had been freed from bondage in Egypt would be “planted” by God in the promised land; and the crop would grow until the time of the harvest!

When it was time to reap, all who were rooted in the Root and Offspring of David were harvested and sent out into the nations; and all remaining were burned in the wrath of God… root and stalk.

The root and stalk of Jesse – David’s Father, was the Son of God - God’s Anointed King of Kings.All of those He found were rooted in Him; and they would bear fruit for the nations and the leaves for the restoration of the earth.

Two crops growing together until the end of the age.One foul and evil; the other rooted in Christ and written in the Lamb’s book of life from the beginning.

Two crops growing together – all of them of the tribes of Jacob.Some were “holy ones” who were kept by God for Himself.The other crop were sons of the devil.

All growing together in the same “field” until the end of the age when the Offspring of David assumed His Kingdom.And “all Israel would be saved”.All whose “root” was the Christ of God were true Israel!

Now, Jesus also said to the Churches (verse sixteen): I AM the bright morning star!We’ll read the words He sent to the Churches in chapter two shortly; for that’s what He’s referring to.

But, first, let’s read the older prophetic Word!

As the tribes of Jacob moved from the Sinai desert to just across the Jordan River from Jericho, they brought great fear to the kingdom of Moab.So, King Balac sent messengers to the most renowned magi/sorcerer in the East – Balaam.He offered to pay him an enormous sum to come and pronounce a curse on this fearsome people who had recently been freed from Egypt, in order that his forces could then overtake them and defeat them!

Balaam agreed; and he traveled to Moab from the East.But before he could curse the tribes of Jacob, YAHVEH spoke to Him and told him what to say to King Balac.And Balaam did!Three times this happened!

Where we pick up reading is at the third occasion; and the king is angry and frustrated that the most famous of all sorcerers, who he had hired at great expense, would do nothing except bless the people that God had freed from Egypt!

Here it is, from the book of Numbers chapter twenty-four:

10)And Balac being angry at Balaam, clapped his hands together and said: I called you to curse my enemies, and you, to the contrary, have blessed them three times.

11)Return to your place!I had indeed determined to honour you greatly, but YAHVEH has deprived you of the honour designed for you.

12)Balaam answered King Balac: Did I not say to your messengers who you sent to me, saying:

13)If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the words of YAHVEH, to do any thing of my own mind either good or evil; whatsoever YAHVEH speaks, that I will speak?

14)But now, before going back to my people, I will give you counsel, what this people shall do to your people in the latter days.

15)Therefore taking up his saying he said: Balaam the son of Beor says, the man whose eyes are opened says,

16)who hearing the words of God says, who knows the knowledge of the Most High, and sees the vision of the Almighty, who falling down has his eyes opened says:

17)I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not near. A STAR SHALL RISE out of Jacob, and a sceptre spring up from Israel, and He shall dash the corners of Moab and destroy the sons of tumult.

18)….

19)Out of Jacob shall he come that shall rule, and shall destroy the ones remaining of the city.

I want you to listen again to Psalm 110 as I add one verse to what I read earlier:

1)The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right until I make your enemies your footstool.

2)The Lord will send forth the sceptre of Your power out of Zion: rule in the midst of your enemies.

3)From the beginning Your strength is with You, You have shone in the brightness of the holy ones.From the womb before the “morning-star” I begot You.

And now hear the words of the birth of Jesus from Matthew chapter one:

1) When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came magi from the east to Jerusalem

2)saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to adore him.

3)And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

4)And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born.

5)But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Judea. For so it is written by the prophet:

6)And you Bethlehem in the land of Judea art not the least among the princes of Judea; for out of you shall come forth the ruler that shall rule my people Israel.

7)Then Herod, privately calling the magi, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them;

8)And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come to adore him.

9)Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was.

10)And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11)And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The magi/sorcerers of the East knew the sayings of their famous forebear Balaam.And when they heard of the star that had arisen out of Jacob, and the Great King with the scepter Who would destroy all who remained, they came to see for themselves – and adore Him; for Balaam had said: “I shall see Him; but not now.I shall behold Him; but not near.”

And now hear Jesus’ message to the Church at Thyatira (chapter two of the Revelation).

18)And write the message for the Church in Thyatira:The Son of God Who has eyes as flames of fire, and Whose feet are burnished bronze, says these things.

19)I know your works and the love and the faithfulness and the service and your perseverance, and the last works greater than the first.

20)But I have against you that you suffer the woman Jezabel who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives My servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols;

21)and I gave her time that she might repent, and she is not willing to repent from her fornication.

22)Lo!I cast her into bed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent from her works,

23)and I will destroy her children in death, and all the Churches will know that I Am He Who searches reins and hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

24)But to the rest of you in Thyatira, in as much as you have not this teaching, who do not know Satan’s depths (as they say), I lay on you no other charge.

25)However, hold fast what you have until I come.

26)And he who overcomes and keeps My works throughout [until the consummation] I will give to him authority over the nations,

27)and he shall tend them with a scepter of iron, dashing them in pieces as the potters’ vessels as I also have received of My Father.

28)And I will give to him the morning star.

29)He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.

And lastly, the words of the apostle Peter to the Church:

16)For we have not made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ by following (made up) fables; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness.

17)For he received from God the Father, honour and glory; this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.

18)And this voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19)And we have the more firm prophetic word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises.

20)Understanding this first in your hearts, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation.

21)For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by Holy Spirit.

The apostle Peter, in this letter to the Churches before our Lord’s Parousia, wrote only that which had been written previously by Moses (Numbers 22 – 24) and by David (Psalm 110) and by Matthew in his account of the birth of Jesus.And it is exactly what Jesus said to John here at the end of the Revelation.

Therefore these aren’t “fables”,Peter said… fairy tales, or inventions, or allegory, or mythology, or divination, or legend, or improvisation… this is the prophetic Word of God, which is more sure than anything having to do with personal experience!

This is men writing the very Words of God, having been moved along by God the Spirit.

And until the “Light” shines, the Lord’s people in the Churches are to hold fast to that which is written in the prophetic Word; for it is near at hand!

And that Word says that in the latter days, One shall arise out of Jacob with the “scepter” of dominion – the “rod” of supreme authority, sovereign rule over all things.For He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.He is Kurios Kuriwn – Lord and Master of all that was made.

He is the “Morning Star” Who will arise as the “dawn” of a new “day” over a world which was in gross darkness of sin and the curse.And He would destroy all the remainder of that nation that perverted the nations and peoples and tribes of the earth with the wine of her fornication.

And there would no longer be a curse.And the River of the Water of Life will flow freely unto the farthest reaches of this creation.And the tree of life will be the fruit for the feeding of the nations; and the leaves for the restoration of all things.

And during all the years of His reign and rule, the full “Light” of His glory will be witnessed in all the nations of the earth.And they will “see”.And they will come.And they will bring multitudes to worship God and the Lamb in His abode with man.And there will be increasing “peace with God” – and among men, and great prosperity in the nations as the creation is progressively restored.

This that we’re reading here at the end of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is the prophetic Word to the firstfruits of the resurrection, who were scattered among the peoples of the world; and the whole world was in wretched, obscene, hellish darkness.

But the prophetic Word was more sure that anything they experienced, more sure than anything said by the dogs and the Jezebels and the Balaams.Hold the testimony of Jesus!Keep His Commandments!The Root and Offspring of David has arrived at the end of the age with the scepter of dominion in His hand!

And the Morning Star will soon arise; the dawn is soon to come; and the light will shine over the nations and people and tongues of the earth who have heretofore lived in the grossest darkness.